Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder which afflicts 16 million people in the United States, over one and one half million of whom have its most severe form, childhood diabetes (also referred to as juvenile, type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes). Insulin-dependent diabetes appears suddenly, most often in children and young adults, and progresses rapidly. In this form, the pancreas ceases to manufacture insulin, a hormone necessary to convert the food we eat into energy for the body. Adult onset diabetes (also referred to as late-onset, type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes) develops especially in adults, and most often in obese individuals, and is characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from impaired insulin utilization coupled with the body's inability to compensate with increased insulin.
In the United States, diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death, killing more than 162,000 people each year. Notably, the mortality rate of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes increases dramatically after 15 years of disease duration. In addition, virtually every major organ system in the body is damaged by diabetes. Complications can include blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, amputation of extremities, loss of nerve sensation, early loss of teeth, high-risk pregnancies and babies born with birth defects.
Currently, insulin injection is the only treatment method available for the over 1.5 million type 1 diabetics and becomes the eventual course of treatment for many of the more than 16 million type 2 diabetics in the United States. Nutritional therapies that positively impact glucose uptake in the face of insulin insufficiency (e.g., increase insulin sensitivity) would have a major impact on the long term treatment costs associated with diabetic care.
More than half of U.S. adults are overweight and nearly one-quarter of the U.S. adults are considered to be obese. The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity is a major public health concern, since obesity is associated with several chronic diseases. For example, overweight and obesity are known risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and some forms of cancer such as uterine, breast, colorectal, kidney, and gallbladder. Furthermore, obesity is associated with high cholesterol, complications of pregnancy, menstrual irregularities, hirsutism, and increased surgical risk.
Pharmacological treatments for disorders caused by or exacerbated by improper glucose uptake are needed. Specifically, compositions for the treatment of diabetes and obesity would be a great boon to subjects suffering from these disease states.